Coffin to coffin in the mourning hall in the Lebanese city of Saida. Crying people saying goodbye to their loved ones. "Forgive me. Please forgive me for not being able to protect you,' says a man through tears, bent over a shrouded corpse.
The suffering of the civilian population in Lebanon
The suffering in Lebanon is damaging. Because not only Hezbollah fighters die in Israel's strikes. "We had just sat down to dinner when military planes started flying over us. I caressed my daughter and told her not to be afraid," says the Lebanese Abdulhamid. But the man fails to save his child. "My son and I somehow managed to get out alive, but my daughter and my wife are dead. Our whole life turned upside down in a second."
Meanwhile, about 1 million people in Lebanon are fleeing the violence. The latest escalation caused by the Iranian attack on Israel is causing further concern among the people, and the state has no solution for the huge amount of displaced people, says Maya Andari of the aid organization "Sare": "The situation in Lebanon is catastrophic. We have 1 million displaced people fleeing violence. We urgently need the support of the international community. Most of the displaced, injured and killed are civilians. These people must be protected. The fire must cease immediately."
At the moment, even Syria is safer
The most basic things are missing everywhere: food, water, mattresses, blankets, clothes, just everything, testified Andari. "People are sleeping on the streets, on the beach or in their cars because the shelters are full."
One of them is Zeina. The young mother and her 4-year-old daughter have been sleeping for days on the beach in Beirut. "I came here because there was no place for us anywhere, everywhere is full of people," Zeina told a Reuters reporter. So now her little daughter sleeps on a blanket on the beach. "A child cannot live like this. It's unbearable. Understand, children are dying."
According to UN data, 100,000 people have already crossed the border with Syria. Among them are quite a few Syrian refugees who are fleeing back to their homeland. But also many Lebanese. People who, in the face of violence, flee to another war-torn country. But at the moment even Syria seems safer than Lebanon.